When you think of stress what do you think of? A deadline at work, the bills that need paying, an argument with a spouse or the children driving you mad in the school holidays?
What about all the micro stresses that maybe you don’t notice? The stresses that happen EVERY day. How do you cope with those?
Maybe you are actually so used to feeling stressed that you don’t even notice that you are stressed anymore!
Our bodies stress response system is an amazing thing and was designed to save us from mortal danger. If our brain senses danger it will kick into the stress response system where the hormone CORTISOL is released which pumps sugar into your blood so that you can FIGHT or FLIGHT!
Great for escaping the saber toothed tiger, not so great for when the kids are arguing for the millionth time that day!
We can’t escape stress or really even reduce it as often these micro stresses are just part of life.
What we can do though is start to recognise and pay attention to our responses to stress.
Do you eat and drink when you are stressed, ? Often we go for these quick fixes (or what we believe to be the quick fix) because they make us feel good for a minute or two. These things are doing nothing to get us out of that fight or flight response which is ideally what we need to do.
So what can you do?
There are so many suggestions BUT you have to find what works for you.
- maybe its 10 mins yoga
- reading a book
- deep breathing
- dancing
- rambling
- dog walking
- boxing
- running
the list could go on and on…….but what works for you might not work for me.
Whatever your ‘thing’ is, make time to do something that de stresses you every day. Have a tool box of things that you can use and practice them every day.
Being over stressed massively affects your physical and mental health.
It causes you to age prematurely and lead you to feeling anxious, overwhelmed and even depressed
So you have to MAKE time for YOU.
What things do you do to de- stress?
Check out this Video for a great Breathing Exercise